Iain Macwhirter

Scotland

Political Columnist and Commentator at The Herald (Scotland)

Columnist,Times. Spectator. Author: "Disunited Kingdom". BBC TV/ radio presenter for over 25 years. Former Rector Edinburgh University.

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Articles

Why is Scottish Labour giving Farage free publicity?

1 week ago | spectator.co.uk | Iain Macwhirter

If the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is sincere in wishing to deprive Nigel Farage of the ‘oxygen of publicity’, he’s got a funny way about it. In a vituperative interview on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland today, he gave the Reform leader another blast of oxygen by offering a public debate on the eve of his visit to next week’s Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election. This is publicity Reform couldn’t buy with any of the money it has so far devoted to a blitz on social media.
A new breed of insurgent threatens SNP hegemony

1 week ago | thetimes.com | Iain Macwhirter
Who killed Brexit? (No Paywall)

2 weeks ago | iainmacwhirter.substack.com | Iain Macwhirter

Who killed Brexit? It’s an intriguing question now that the decade-long war between the two Britains – Leavers and Remainers – appears to be over. And I think it is over, even though the UK is still outside the EU single market and the customs union. The guns have fallen silent as the Brits have, figuratively speaking, climbed into the railway carriage to sign the armistice. We know where we are going, and it is back to the European Union by stealth.
Keir Starmer's tough talk gives SNP a spring in its step

2 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Iain Macwhirter
I supported voluntary euthanasia before witnessing my mother's death

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Iain Macwhirter
Scots aren’t turning racist, they’re just scunnered

4 weeks ago | iainmacwhirter.substack.com | Iain Macwhirter

And the gods laughed. Last month, John Swinney held a cross-party summit against the far right. To drum up support, he warned that Nigel Farage was likely to be the next Prime Minister. It was time to mobilise Scotland’s progressive majority against the insidious threat from the “racists” of Reform, he said. Well, what he never expected was that Farage’s party could become the official opposition in the Scottish Parliament. Shock. Horror.
Nicola Sturgeon has learned nothing from the trans debacle

1 month ago | spiked-online.com | Iain Macwhirter

The former Scottish first minister remains totally unrepentant about her war on women’s rights. Share Topics Identity Politics Politics UK Want to read spiked ad-free? Become a spiked supporter. It was an audacious exercise in self-promotion, if nothing else.
Iain Macwhirter's Substack

1 month ago | iainmacwhirter.substack.com | Iain Macwhirter

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Sturgeon: trans women are still women whatever the court says

1 month ago | iainmacwhirter.substack.com | Iain Macwhirter

You’ve got to hand it to her — Nicola Sturgeon is still a virtuoso when it comes to dominating the media. Choosing the day of her successor John Swinney’s Programme for Government speech as an opportunity to get her retaliation in to the Supreme Court and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission was as cheeky as it was effective. Her intervention underlined the threadbare nature of Swinney’s legislative programme — she would never have delivered something so devoid of content and drama.
The SNP is remembering its populist roots

1 month ago | spectator.co.uk | Iain Macwhirter

John Swinney will unveil his second programme for government in Holyrood today – the first minister of Scotland’s equivalent of the King’s Speech. He will promise measures to cut hospital waiting lists, address climate change, eliminate child poverty and, above all, promote economic growth. But what is more interesting than what is in today’s programme is what has been left out of it. John Swinney has been quietly burying his predecessors’ progressive policies.